Turn It All Around
by SingularToast
Summary: Rachel breaks up with Puck, which leads to a drunken night with the boys. Based on the song 'Nothing' by The Script.


**Title:** Turn It All Around  
**Pairing/Characters:** Puck, Finn, Mike, Sam, Rachel  
**Rating/Warnings:** T for language  
**Summary:** Rachel breaks up with Puck, which leads to a drunken night with the boys. Based on the song 'Nothing' by The Script.  
**Spoilers:** Nope.  
**Disclaimer:** _Glee_ doesn't belong to me. If it did, it would be on HBO. Jussayin.

* * *

'_You act like this isn't even a surprise.'_

Why wasn't she begging to take him back?

_'Did these last few months mean so little to you?'_

She's got no reason to want him back.

_'So you're just going to let me go?'_

Why wasn't the phone ringing?

_'Fine. Goodbye, Noah Puckerman.'_

Groaning in frustrating, Puck snatched one of the pillows out from behind his head and threw it across the room at the phone that sat silent on his desk. "Why the fuck won't you call me!" He yelled, feeling like he needed to punch something.

Grumbling to himself, he trudged over to his desk, pushed aside the pillow he'd just thrown and picked up his phone, looking at the blank screen. This was bullshit. Opening his contacts, he pressed call and stood there, listening as it started to ring.

"Dude, she hasn't called," he said as soon as they picked up. Let's ignore how small and dejected his voice sounded right now.

There was a beat of silence at the end of the line, then a resigned sigh. "Why would she?" Finn asked. "_She_ just dumped _you_."

"Well, yeah, exactly! Why isn't she calling me and apologising or something? I thought we meant more than that!" He winced when he realised he had basically just repeated the words she had used against him.

"Puck! Calm the hell down, yeah?"

Swearing to himself, Puck turned around and collapsed back onto his bed. "She _wanted_ to do it." No she didn't. He could still see the tears she'd barely been able to contain as they stood there on her front doorstep.

"Jesus … Puck, you said yourself you were better off without her right? _You_ said that."

Yeah. He said that. He wasn't stupid enough to say it to her face, but he'd said it. Fuck.

"Look, screw this, come to the pub with us. You, me, Mike, and Sam."

Nah, he didn't really want to be with people right now. He wanted … He just wanted to wait for her to change her mind.

"A couple of drinks and you'll forget all about her."

Really? "Yeah, okay, whatever."

So that was why he was walking down the middle of the road behind Mike, Sam and Finn as they joked and wrestled their way toward the Lima Pub. Hands in pockets, coat pulled tight around him, Puck just stared at the ground as he walked, barely remembering to move to the side when a car drove past.

"Hey, Puck!" Sam yelled out, grinning like an idiot as he walked backwards down the street. "When we get to college you gotta tell me your room number, yeah? We'll have some bitchin' dorm parties!"

Plastering a bland smile on his face he said, "Yeah, totally, we'll raise the roof." Yeah. Yeah, it'll be great. It'll be great without Rachel there, playing the perfect hostess even though he hadn't asked her to. She wouldn't be there to help clean up, or to make sure everyone had a drink in their hand, or to make sure Puck didn't get yack all over his jumper at the end of the evening. She definitely wouldn't be there to hold him afterward and remind him that he wasn't actually dying, that it was just the alcohol talking, and that she'd make sure he wakes up in the morning.

And there's no way she'll be there in his bed the next day, all soft and warm, blinking her eyes sleepily before smiling and murmuring 'Good morning' to him.

Yeah. It'll be great.

And he still tried to think so during his first and second beer while he sat in the pub with the other three, smiling and talking when they looked at him, but otherwise keeping to himself. Even the top-heavy blonde waitress couldn't catch his eye when she brought out their third and fourth rounds. He told himself she just wasn't his type.

She wasn't short, she wasn't brunette, and she wasn't Rachel.

At around the sixth beer things stared making a lot more sense, but when he started on his seventh it all became a little murkier again. It wasn't until he was sitting there nursing his eighth beer, that it hit him. What the hell was he still doing there? "Gotta get outta here," he told the golden liquid in his glass, watching the bubbles form, then rise to the surface.

"What?" He couldn't really tell which of his mates asked him that, but he lifted his head and looked at all of them.

"Gotta get outta here. Gotta go see her. Tell me she's an idiot. I mean, tell her _I'm_ an idiot."

He was already out of his chair and slinging his jumper over his head before Sam could even mutter a confused, "Puck, what …?" And by then he was already heading out the door.

So of course, the boys followed him. Shuffling out of the pub after him and spotting Puck already stumbling down the road back toward their end of town, they all started calling out, telling him he really was an idiot and that he shouldn't be on the road while he's drunk.

Finn wanted to know if it counted as drink driving, but the others just ignored him while Puck ignored everyone. He stumbled down the road, veering over to the sidewalk after a few more feet, and staggered into a tree that had the nerve to get in his way. Staring at the bark under his hand, more than a little confused, it slowly dawned on him that he wasn't going to get to her place in time – in time for what, he didn't know. He just knew it had to be _now_. Lurching away from the tree and off the sidewalk, he dug into his pocket for his phone.

"Dude?" Finn called out. "What're you doin' now?"

That's right. They were still there. "Gotta call her," Puck told them, not really caring if he was speaking loud enough for them to hear anyway. "Gotta tell her to wait."

Even without seeing Hudson's face, he could imagine the confused look that would be there as the guy said, "But she's not going anywhere tonight. Right?"

"Yes she is!" Puck insisted, but he wasn't entirely paying attention. He had already punched Rachel's number into his phone and was listening to it ring. "She's … hello? He-hello … oh shit, it's voicemail. Shit, Rach? You there? Wait, no, this is your mobile. Can't really screen mobiles. Shit. Rach, stay there, I'm coming. 'Cause we gotta talk, 'cause you gotta … you can't do that."

Ever the bright spark, Sam was calling out to him as he left the message. "Dude, no, Puck … man, don't call her. This is such a bad idea …"

"Tell me about it," Mike muttered, then started giggling as one of them began swearing like a sailor. Apparently the curb got in their way. But Puck just kept on going, not noticing that it was taking him twice as long just to walk down the street because he was zigzagging from one curb to the other.

Several feet behind him, fairing a little better than he was because they had each other to lean on, Mike, Sam and Finn were whispering loudly amongst themselves.

"We should stop him," Mike was saying, gesturing forward at the hunch figure walking ahead of them.

Scrunching up his face, Finn shook his head and said, "That's like stopping a freaking freight train. Seriously, you seen this guy tackle?"

"Yeah, but he's like … drunk," Sam protested, sizing Puck up.

But Mike just shook his head. _Not_ a good idea. "Dude, we're all drunk."

Sam wasn't listening though, paying too close attention to Puck and whatever the guy was doing now. "Yeah, but he's like _drunk_ drunk, and drunk dialling, and … and he's doing it again."

And he was. Phone still in his hand, Puck called Rachel's number again and held it up to his ear as he turned a corner that would lead to her street. "Fricking voicemail again … Rach? Rach!" He didn't even realise he was practically yelling into the phone until Finn called for him to shut the hell up. "Shit, sorry … Rach, babe, don't leave. Just, like … stay. Stay right there. I'm coming. Just, Rach—"

But somehow, in his drunken confusion, he accidently hung up the phone.

"Crap … crap, gotta call her back … She hates when I hang up on her …"

Too busy fumbling with his phone to keep up the already slow speed he'd been walking at, the boys caught up to him fairly quickly and Mike tried to reach forward to take the cell off him. "No, Puck, don't man, you're making an idiot of yourself."

"I _am_ an idiot of myself!" He told them, slapping at Mike's hand to keep it away from him and his phone, quickly dialling Rachel's number again before they could stop him as they turned onto her street. "And I gotta tell her, 'cause if she hears me then she'll change her mind, okay? And she's gotta listen, 'cause I love her, and she's stupid, and she can't freaking leave me like this!"

The phone at his ear was silent, and he couldn't tell if it was recording a message or if he just hadn't gotten through to her yet. "Hello? He-hellooo? Damn it. Damn it, Rachel, why'd you have to go and do that. Now I'm all drunk, and like, missing you, and you're not even gone."

Looking around forlornly, it struck him that – by some miracle – he was only three houses away from her father's place. A twenty minute walk had just taken them all only, like, two. Or, at least it felt like it had. But sometime between leaving the pub and passing the bright red letter box with the ceramic rooster that was next door to her, they'd made it there.

"Puck, what? We're at Rachel's. Why're we at Rachel's? Puck?"

"Wait! Wait, wait, w-woah." Grabbing his arms and stopping him from walking up the footpath to the Berry's front door, Mike made Puck turn around and look him in the eye. Not that either of them could really focus very well, but they faced each other while standing there on the lawn. "Dude, what're you gonna do? _Think_, man."

Puck groaned and closed his eyes, swaying on the spot. He didn't really know. He just had to _tell_ her. "I just gotta tell her," he said. "Just … if I go up there now, and _tell_ her, I can change her mind, and I know I'm drunk, but … she's just gotta listen, and take it back."

Mike frowned. "Take what back?"

"The breakup, man! She's gotta take it back! 'Cause I just _let_ her do it, and I'm an idiot, and I should've told her _no_."

"Dude!" Whispered Finn, pointing frantically to some point over Puck's shoulder. "Dude!"

"Wha—?" Looking backwards, Puck glanced over at the Berry's front door, and stopped talking.

Rachel was standing there. Rachel was standing there with tears on her face and her phone pressed to her ear.

And she was _smiling_.

"Babe," murmured Puck, and he pushed Mike away from him, turning around and scrambling up the footpath to her front porch. "You … are you … what's wrong?"

Shaking her head, the little brunette lowered her phone slowly, pressing a button and letting her hand drop to her side. "I was just listening to your messages," she told him, chuckling softly and wiping at the tears on her cheeks. "You're a very honest drunk, Noah. Unable to speak with any kind of clarity, but most definitely honest."

He climbed up the stairs slowly, partly so as not to spook her, like she was a ghost that would just disappear if he moved too quickly, but also because he shouldn't really have been handling stairs in his condition. Reaching out, slowly, slowly, he took her hand and looked down at their fingers, lacing his through hers, and looked up at her. "S'cause you wouldn't answer your phone," he told her, pouting slightly.

"That doesn't explain why you've started spouting off all this nonsense about me needing to stay and listen to whatever it is you need to tell me," she said, rubbing a thumb along the back of his hand.

"Yeah, well …I said stuff on your messages, and you probably heard all that, so … yeah." This was hard. He couldn't think of the right words to use, and all he _could_ think of was how easy it would have been to turn around and ask Chang or Sam to tell him what the hell to say.

Chuckling again, Rachel said, "You didn't tell me very much, Noah, just that I couldn't do this to you. That I needed to stay because you were coming to get me, and that you loved me."

He … Huh? What? "I _what_?" Did he say that? He didn't remember saying that. Not that it wasn't true or whatever, but he didn't remember telling her that.

Sighing, Rachel pocketed her phone and took his other hand in hers as well, not meeting his eyes as she asked, "Why did it take the threat of me leaving for you to tell me you loved me?"

Same reason he'd gone to the pub and drank too many beers too quickly, and probably the same reason he thought walking to her house and leaving three unintelligible messages for her was a good idea. "S'cause I'm an idiot." Pausing, he added, "And I'm drunk."

Almost immediately, her face fell. "So … so it's just the alcohol talking?"

"No! Shit, baby, no. I'm ... fuck." She looked so disappointed, and he felt like shit, and he hadn't even meant to say it like that, and he was really screwing this up. "I meant it. No, I mean, I still mean it. I still feel it."

A ghost of a smile flitted across her face, and she looked up at him coyly. "So, say it again. Say it to my face, Noah."

"Shit ... Rach ..."

But his words only made her smile fade sadly once again, and he hated that she didn't look at all surprised that he couldn't do it. "You see?" She told him, shaking her head and clutching his hands tighter. "You don't really mean it—"

"I love you."

He watched as Rachel just stood there, stunned into silence. Wetting his suddenly dry lips, wondering what that heavy drumming in his chest was – oh right, his heart – he stepped a little closer. "Shit ... I love you. _You_. Out of everyone, and everything, and you can't leave me."

A surprised laugh left her lips, and Rachel leaned in to rest her forehead against his chest, rolling her head from side to side as she shook her head incredulously. "I love you too," she said against his chest, and several large _whoop!_s echoed behind him. Craning his head around, Puck flipped the bird at the boys, who were clinging to each other and grinning broadly back at him. But when Rachel started talking again he forgot about them completely and held her shoulders. "But I thought this would be for the best. I'm going away, and we're going to be so far apart, and though I couldn't bear the thought of leaving you, it just seemed simpler."

"No, like … screw leaving," he told her earnestly. "People do that long distance shit all the time, and hell, it's not even really that long of a distance! It's only Ohio State! Babe, we'll be _so_ okay with this."

Her soft, watery chuckle in response was all he needed to hear. Wrapping his arms around her, Puck held her tight, his currently drunk-self promising his future sober-self that he wouldn't let her go again.

"Hey … Puck, hey, hey…" Finn, stumbling forward on his own, quickly asked, "So you guys are, like, good now?"

Looking down at her face as Rachel looked up at him, Puck quirked a brow at her and grinned when she nodded in response. "Yeah, man I reckon we're good."

"Cool, so … can Rach give us a ride home?"

* * *

**_Author's Note: _**_Just something I'd been toying with for a while :) Clearly this ends a little happier than the song does ..._


End file.
